Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

This is a book written for young adults. The protagonist is 9th grader Melinda Sordino. She has a secret that causes her pain, confusion and that makes her a social outcast at school. We see her find healing.

General rating: 3.5 out of 4. Not really uplifting, but meaningful and well written.

1. Is it plausible? Yes.

2. Is it thought provoking? Yes. Quite.

3. Is it engaging? Yes, very much. You don't find out her secret until the middle of the book, for one thing. And even though she behaves badly, she is very lovable.

4. Is it inspiring? Not really. Not depressing, though.

Language: none
Sex: of a sort. Mom (or Dad), you'll want to read it first.

My recommendation: This, I think, is Laurie Halse Anderson's first book for young adults (she wrote a few childrens books before this one). I liked it. It was meaningful without being heavy handed. Having never had Melinda's experience myself, I can't say for certain, but it felt authentic to me, although I question the reality of EVERYONE ignoring her. Or was it that she made herself an outcast even to those who may have accepted her? Hm. This is one of those YA books that dehumanizes adults (including parents), which I always feel badly about. It perpetuates a stereotype that is unhealthy, I believe. But also it was an adult who really saw through Melinda's behavior to the pain underneath. That's also significant. I think a parent might want to read this before her daughter reads it. It's a book that should be discussed. Very worth reading.

Mom: A Celebration of Mothers edited by Dave Isay

This is a collection of interviews with mothers and fathers and children. It's from an organization called storycorps.

General Rating: 4 out of 4

1. Is it plausible? Well, it's reality. Certainly it's plausible.

2. Is it thought provoking? Yes.

3. Is it engaging? Yes. Reality so often is more engaging than fiction.

4. Is it inspiring? Yes.

Language: none
Sex: none (a little discussion of homosexuality here and there)

My recommendation: I liked it a lot. I felt it broadened my understanding of people--especially mothers. I am amazed at how many very strong women there are out there. It's a book worth reading and, incidentally a cause (storycorps) worth supporting. Dave Isay urges people to record their family stories. I agree. I found these stories (most of them, anyway) meaningful and engaging--and they weren't even my family! A lovely book.

Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley

This is Robin McKinley's second retelling of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast.

General Rating:3.5 out of 4--Basically lovely

1. Is this plausible within the genre? Yes

2. Is it thought provoking? A little bit.

3. Is it engaging? Yes

4. Is it uplifting? Yes

Language: none
Sex: none

My recommendation: I actually like Robin McKinley's first "Beauty" better than this one--it's simpler and more straightforward. This one is lovely--full of imagery, complex and rich. AND the ending is better, I think. But! It feels overwrought to me in places, especially on repeat readings. The story is buried under velvet descriptions, lyrical passages and complicated situations obscurely presented. Too many words! Despite these criticisms, though, I really do like this book. It's part of my collection of Robin McKinley.

Beauty by Robin McKinley

This is a retelling of the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast".

General rating: 3.5 out of 4. One of my most loved books.

1. Is it plausible? Within its genre, it certainly is.

2. Is it thought provoking? Well, maybe a little.

3. Is it engaging? Yes, very much.

4. Is it uplifting? Yes.

Language: none
Sex: none

My recommendation: Robin McKinley is one of my favorite authors. I've loved almost everything she's written (with a few very notable exceptions--be careful!). I particularly love fairy tale remakes, so I've always particularly liked this book. Ms. McKinley has written 2 versions of Beauty and the Beast--this straightforward tale (which is very much what everyone imagines the story of Beauty and the Beast to be) and, 20 years later, another, "Rose Daughter". They are very different. I enjoy them both (I'll post a review of "Rose Daughter" in a few days), but I prefer the first, "Beauty". This book is just what I think the story should be like. Except the ending is too brief. After a book full of logical progressions and comprehensible emotions, the beast transforms and all ends happily in just a few pages at the end. It really felt abrupt. Other than that, I love this book and highly recommend it.

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

This book is a WWII story also. Our main character, Rebecca, promises her dying Grandmother to investigate their family history, to find her "inheritance". Over and over, Rebecca's grandmother (Gemma) told her the story of "Briar Rose" (or "Sleeping Beauty"). It is only when Becca digs into Gemma's past that she finds that the princess in the fairy tale WAS her grandmother! How is this connected to the Holocaust? You'll find out in this 240 page YA book.

General Rating: 3 out of 4. A stunner.

1. Was it plausible? Yes, unfortunately, it was all too plausible.

2. Was it thought provoking? Yes, see my rant from "Above Suspicion"

3. Was it engaging? Yes, very.

4. Was it uplifting? Kind of.

Language: none
Sex: reference to homosexual relationships, no descriptions. One of the main characters is a homosexual man. This bothered me a little bit just because I wasn't into reading about his party life. But it reminded me that homosexuals were tortured and killed too, along with all the others that were labeled as subhuman by the Nazis.

My recommendation: This book is worth reading. I actually found it kind of stunning. It wasn't a comfortable book, by any means. From the title, I initially assumed it was a retelling of the tale of Sleeping Beauty. Which is is, really, but in a way I could never have predicted or even imagined. [It's a book written for young adults, but is easily read by adults too, of course. I often find great favorites among YA literature.]

Above Suspicion by Helen MacInnes

This story is set in Nazi Germany, before the allies joined WWII, but after the persecution of the Jews had begun. Our protagonists, Frances and Richard Myles, are ordinary people called into undercover service. They are given what seems to be a simple task, but turns out to be more complex and dangerous than they supposed. This book was written in 1941 and is about 290 pages long.

General rating: 3.5 out of 4. Very good book.

1. Is it plausible? Yes.

2. Is it thought provoking? Yes. Lots of philosophizing in this book.

3. Is it engaging? Very much so.

4. Is it uplifting? Not particularly. The way the Nazi rhetoric captured generations of Germans is hard to understand. It's really lowering to think of so many people willing to betray and murder their neighbors. Every time I read about Nazi Germany, or the Kmer Rouge (I do not know how to spell that) or Communist Korea or the French Revolution, or Communist Russia or Rwanda (etc etc), I just cannot understand how or why people are convinced that killing their fellow countryman is the right thing to do. It dumbfounds me. Am I as easily led as so much of humanity seems to be? Why are we so vulnerable to the prevailing thought, why are we such blind swallowers of media-driven values? I just don't get it and I think it's frightening. So, in that this book is about the time when Germany was embracing all things Nazi and the rest of the world was just waking up to the insanity of it... this book is not uplifting. However, it is about "good" having a triumph over "evil", so in that was it is uplifting, I suppose.

Language: none
Sex: none

My recommendation: I really, really like Helen MacInnes. I like her characters, I get caught up in the worlds her books report. I found this book exciting and thoughtful without being excoriating. I highly recommend it.

Footsteps in the Dark by Georgette Heyer

This is an English country mystery, very reminiscent of Agatha Christie. It's about 250 pages long.

General rating: 3.5 out of 4. A very enjoyable book.

1. Is it plausible? Hm... I think pretty much all mysteries are not really plausible, as far as I can't imagine this sort of thing happening in "real life"--especially with just regular joes investigating and solving things. But! Within the fiction genre of "mystery" it was just as plausible as most, more plausible than many.

2. Is it thought provoking? Well, I have to admit that this book actually prompted me to think about keeping confidences. At one point, when our main characters are "in the know" about the police investigation, they are pressed to share their information with good friends. They resist, even though these friends are certainly trustworthy! Their integrity in keeping their word not to "tell" made it possible to solve the case. I wondered, can I be trusted to keep confidences even when I'm "sure" the person I'm tempted to tell is "completely trustworthy"? I don't usually find mysteries particularly thought provoking. But this one did make me think about my own integrity as far as secret-keeping goes.

3.Is it engaging? It was in a gentle way. Really, like Agatha Christie. This wasn't a book I couldn't put down. I certainly looked forward to picking it up again! The mystery was engaging, but the characters were even more so. And I enjoyed the little romance that was thrown in.

4. It is uplifting? Well, sure. It was more uplifting than some mysteries are, simply because of the satisfying relationships between the characters. And the English countryside--images of that are always uplifting, right? It was a fun book. Is that uplifting?

Language: none
Sex: none

My recommendation: Well, I love Georgette Heyer. My favorites are her regency romances, but I have enjoyed the mysteries of hers that I've read as well. I particularly enjoyed the touches of humor in this book, and the repartee between her characters. I do particularly enjoy British characters and this book is, of course, full of them. It was a little bit predictable. It wasn't difficult to identify who would be murdered and, towards the end, it wasn't too hard to guess who the murderer was, either. But I'm the kind of reader to who enjoys the journey just as much (and sometimes more) than the conclusion, so the slight predictability didn't bother me. If you like classic British mystery--Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, P.D. James, Margery Allingham, Dorothy Sayers, etc--you'll likely enjoy Georgette Heyer's mysteries as well.